The History of Mozambique

After more than 200 years of colonial rule by the Portuguese, Mozambique became one of Africa’s last independent nations in 1975. For the Portuguese, Mozambique had been an export point for gold, ivory and people, with slavery being a major part of trade from the late 18th century. While maintaining control of its ports and coastal cities, Portugal exerted minimal influence inland and invested very little back into it’s east African colony, in terms of infrastructure, health care and education – upon independence, the newly independent Mozambican government inherited an illiteracy rate of more than 90%. To make matters worse, more than 200,000 skilled and semi-skilled whites fled Mozambique shortly before independence, taking their need skills and money with them, with many destroying whatever they could before they left.

he new government of independent Mozambique was led by President Samora Machel and the FRELIMO Party, under a one-party system. FRELIMO (the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique), which had been founded in 1962 and began armed struggle against the Portuguese in 1964, had always been leftist in its ideology. It immediately embarked on a series of radical reforms, appropriating all farmland, making all private schools and hospitals public and nationalizing all banks and companies. FRELIMO and Mozambique formally adopted a Marxist-Leninist in 1977 and new plans were based on the Soviet model. With economic and political support coming mainly from the USSR and eastern European countries, the socialist government of Mozambique was considered a threat by Rhodesia, South Africa, the USA and NATO, and an armed resistance (RENAMO) was created with the sole purpose of destabilizing Mozambique. Mozambique was now one of the hot spots in the “cold war”.

The next 15 years were to be sheer horror for Mozambicans, with more than 1 million people dying as a direct or indirect result of the conflict and millions more living as refugees in Mozambique and neighboring countries. When the war ended in 1992, Mozambique was officially the poorest country in the world.